Bleeding Out

the House Always Wins

May 10th, 1865

If I pledge allegiance to you... you'll let them live?
America was quite stunned. What?
You'll let them go about their lives?
  I'm going to do that anyway, Dixie.
  No. The voice in his head said. You're going to give them a "fair" trial and jail all of them. If I pledge allegiance to you... If I swear to you that I'm your humble servant or whatever, they can live. And stop callin' me that.
  America frowned. He was sitting at his tiny wooden desk, his pen hovering over the jail form for Jefferson Davis. I'm not going to jail all the soldiers, Dixie.
  Please stop callin' me that.
  What? Dixie? Would you prefer Dix? The Southern Cross-
  How about nothin'. Just let me be.
  You were the one who started this conversation.
  The voice in his head just growled.
  America sighed, going back to his paperwork. They were never going to get along.

Present

  Alaska was finally asleep.
  It didn't take long once he allowed America to properly treat his wound, but Alaska had fought him more than usual.
  Alaska was tricky. When America first received him, Alaska was just... there. It was nearly impossible to coax the last frontier out of his shell. Well, it was less of a shell and more of a heavily guarded, incredibly thick, bullet-proof cement wall.
  When Alaska finally opened up, let him see and help fix his problems, they had grown close. Even closer than Texas or California or New York or any of the other states. As far as America knew Alaska was the same way with him. He didn't really talk to anyone else except maybe Hawaii, who was so incredibly kind in the things that she did there was no way the state couldn't be nice back.
  So seeing his son trembling as America gently wrapped up his wound made him angry. It was a different kind of anger. He didn't want to smash things around or scream or cry.
  He finally got his head in the game.
  America felt the adrenaline rush of pure aggression pumping through his veins. He was aware of everything. He had forgotten what it was like to feel passionate and to finally know something and not sit around for hours working on paperwork that would never end. It was time for action. And for the first time in so long, something he thought he was slowly losing grip on was there with the stab of a blade.
  "How is he?" Colorado's voice was small.
  "Alaska is already healing. He'll be okay." America sat down on the couch in the living room where the other states and territories were already waiting nervously.
  America made a quick note of "casualties" in his head. New York was still down, Alaska was getting the rest he needed, and Dixie was nowhere to be found. Huh. Haven't used the casualty list in a while.
  "Alright. We're finding this guy and we're gonna take it down."
  "You... Want our help?" Arkansas looked incredible confused.
  "I don't just want it." America sat back. "I need it."
  To his surprise a loud cheer erupted from the states.
  "Oh Pa," Texas grinned. "We've been waitin' for you to ask. We were gonna go behind ya back and do it anyhow, but it's a bit better with your permission'."
  America chuckled. "Glad to see everyone's ready to kick some shadow butt."
  "What can we do to help." Florida looked at America with a huge grin on his face.
  America cleared his throat. "Alright. We'll separate into groups and divide and conquer. The territories won't worry about anything." He gestured the small territories closer. "I have a special job for you. You need to make sure New York doesn't get worse and Alaska continues to heal. Can you do that?"
  They nodded. Guam nodded a bit to vigorously and almost fell over.
  "Good." America made eye contact with New Mexico. "Can you do your dream thing? Maybe not on the shadow but on Dixie?"
  New Mexico nodded. "I'll be upstairs."
  "Can you take Arizona and Oklahoma with you?"
  "Yes."
  "Okay." America furrowed his brow and turned to Washington. "Get me news articles from around this area. Maybe we can get lucky, and someone saw a shady looking person dragging away another shady looking person." Washington nodded.
  He turned to Idaho. "Are NATO and NASA still here?"
  "No." Idaho shook his head. "Alabama got them to leave."
  America stood up. "Good."
  "Dad?" Hawaii looked up at him. "Why can't you use the mind reading thing to find him?"
  "I've tried." America knelt down next to her. "He's not responding."
  "Oh." She looked down.
  "I'll keep trying though." America gently adjusted her eye patch. "I promise."
  He stood back up. "Texas and California, assign some states to clean up and cook. There's something I need to take care of."
  America turned and walked up the stairs. He turned to go to his room-
  "Dad?"
  America turned around to see California standing there.
  She hadn't called him dad to his face in a long time.
  She opened her mouth to say something but then stopped.
  "It's okay Cali." America whispered. She hugged him.
  It was swift and fast, but in those few seconds America hugged her back. Then she was gone, back down the hall and down the stairs to probably go argue with Texas about straws or something.
  America entered his room and picked up his phone. He typed a quick message and laid it back down, dashing out the door.

Japan

sorry i can't talk tonight.
something came up and i
WILL tell you about it later
goodnight
I love you

  Dixie gasped as he awoke, his head throbbing a dull, repetitive pain. He cracked his eyes open and winced softly.
  "You're awake."
  Dixie growled in response.
  The shadow chuckled. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you."
  The figure tossed a bag of something at him. It landed in a heap on his lap and fell open.
Fast food?
  "Is this some kind of a joke?" Dixie glared at the figure. "How did you get this? Rob someone?"
It shrugged. "I ordered it. Humans can see me the way they see you. They thought it was funny when a strange man just walked up to the window."
  Dixie turned his head away. The places where the shadow had bled him stung. "I'm not hungry."
  His stomach growled in reply. The figure laughed.
  The shadow reached up and unlocked the chains that bound his forearms. "Eat. You are lucky I am being so kind."
  Dixie glared at the shadow, not moving.
  The shadow's eyes narrowed. "So stubborn."
  "I got it from my brother."
  "You best learn to shut your mouth." The figure snarled in a low voice. It grabbed Dixie's jaw and squeezed it. "You need to be kept strong."
  Dixie kept eye contact, trying to keep his mouth shut as the shadow began to force feed him.

NOTES:
I skipped over the part where he bleeds Dixie, because that's both disturbing and the Dixie protection squad would've killed me. But now that he is covered in Dixie's blood (sorry), humans can see them the way they see just other Country/Statehumans. They just look like normal people but it feels weird when you're around them. Its a weird headcanon I know. And sorry this took a butt ton of time to get out.